NOVEMBERLAND: the little shieldmaiden

2

Early the next morning me, Margo, her two bodyguards, that I learned were named Lexus and Stuart, travelled in the carriage to Havneli where a ship headed to Calibur as soon as we arrived. It could not be known to the people that a royal was travelling, even though it would not be a problem. The ship was not big, but it was not Lynrikan, as it had a totally different design and a wooden creature of some kind in the front. The voyage would take some days, but it would be okay. 

What saddened me the most was that I had no chance to say goodbye to Tyr yesterday, I never wanted to leave him behind like that. Hopefully, I would be back in a couple of months, and I could stay at the acres of Fjella. This was my Mother's fault, Father would have never let me go on such a trip without planning it with me first, oh gods how I missed him. I was always his daughter, whilst Alva was hers. He would take me, Storm and Grim out hunting early on, I was just four, but he took me with anyways. I got to sit on his back, whilst Storm and Grim, that were seven and nine walked by our sides. Father was tall, strong and loving, he was my best friend. I locked myself up in my chambers for weeks when he died, I was only ten, but that was before I met Tyr. We met because they were taken to witness to a case that had happened on their lands. I was eleven and he was twelve. They could only find his brothers, Petur, Kvasir and Armar, but they could not find Tyr. I was not really supposed to be there, but I followed anyway, I managed to lure him into walking right into were grandfather and the guards were. After that, we became friends, even though he was mad at me for a while, but he is not mad for long. 

When we arrived in Calibur after some days on the sea, ocean fog surrounded the mountain, but you could see it bulging out of the water in a right line verticle line. On top of it, a city was formed, Arcane city, wooden houses with stone detailing that showed a sign of wealth. And on a lean cliff in the water connected to the mountain by a bridge formed a great castle, three times the size of the lynrikan one. 

"It's big isn't it?" Margo said and stood up beside me.

"I've never seen anything like it."

"Well, then you should wait till you get inside. The caliban royals have a sense for decorating quite nicely in every little spot you could think of," she said and looked at me.

"I hope it is as nice as I'm imagining in my head."

"But you know what happened to the king right?" She asked. "How he got the crown."

The only thing I knew was that he suddenly got the crown by his parents dying. I never focused on words that were about the royals, it never interested me. But as I got to know why he got the crown I was shocked. The King, Gryffin, was fifth in line to the throne. First, at the age of nine, he lost his father to illness, shortly after his mother died of the same illness. Then his brother, Alastair X, got the crown at an age of seventeen. Some years later a war between Muriel and Calibur occurred, were the king, his brother Gael and sister Adella died in the war. His second eldest brother Warrick was heavily wounded, but he died of the pains after a later. Gryffin was then crowned king the age of thirteen and has been for three years till that moment. Now it was just him, his younger siblings Ellery and Brendan left. That made it understandable why they called him the young king. 

When we arrived in the city by a grand carriage it was nothing like simple old Ygritte. Delicate decorations here and there and big houses that showed the wealth that this city had. You could hear the cobblestone underneath the carriage as the horses dragged us towards the castle, I had never heard that sound before ever in my life. I was used to the sound of moss scrunching beneath my feet or the sand by the sea, never cobblestones clicking as we went by. Margo was actually quite nice, she had talked about the upcoming events that I had to attend and the different things that were normal at the caliban court. It was so much more formal, and I felt like the lynrikan court was formal, I was in for a roll.